Salt?

diyhuntr

New Member
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2
This last weekend I went to central Utah to do some scouting. We hiked in a couple miles to where we like to hunt. We ran into a couple guys who were putting trail cams up, and dumping this salt/critter lick stuff everywhere. To my knowledge, I thought salt was considered "bait" and was not legal. What are your thoughts on trail cams and salt?
 
>This last weekend I went to
>central Utah to do some
>scouting. We hiked in a
>couple miles to where we
>like to hunt. We ran
>into a couple guys who
>were putting trail cams up,
>and dumping this salt/critter lick
>stuff everywhere. To my knowledge,
>I thought salt was considered
>"bait" and was not legal.
>What are your thoughts on
>trail cams and salt?


Must not be much of a DIY hunter if you aren't aware of the basic laws this state has regarding big game.

Salt and other attractants are good to scout with, but as far as actually using them as bait during hunting season, I don't think it's of any value. Once hunting season gets going and the animals start seeing pressure, their daily habits change. They will still come visit a salt lick, but not on a daily basis like they did in the summer. You are better off sitting a good water source
 
Don't know about mule deer but the whitetails on my property here in Iowa virtually stop coming to salt as soon as their antlers shed velvet. When they lose their antlers in the spring and start growing new they start hitting it hard again.
 
That's how it was in the books the bulls stop coming in to are salt when they started sheading there horns but started returning at the very end of the hunt with cows and the cows where licking the salt but the bulls didn't want anything to do with it.
 
"Its legal but pretty unethical". Few years back a certain pig hunting "professional tv personality" was down on the winter range on manti spreading hay to bring in elk for a show(late hunt). I wondered so I called dwr, that was their answer. After letting his sponsors know what he was doing, I got a "cease and desist" from his lawyer. Seemed his sponsors found the practice to be "unethical" as well, and dumped him.

That year there were 52 mature bulls hanging at spring city cemetery, but the "pig pro" couldn't find elk without bait. Go figure.



"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"
 
I appreciate all the responses! I fully agree with "its legal but pretty unethical", which is why I've stayed away from it. But it seems to becoming more and more popular.
 
LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-17 AT 02:23PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-17 AT 02:21?PM (MST)

LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-17 AT 02:13?PM (MST)

>I appreciate all the responses! I
>fully agree with "its legal
>but pretty unethical", which is
>why I've stayed away from
>it. But it seems to
>becoming more and more popular.
>

It puzzles me that "baiting" for some species is considered unethical, but not for others. And "baiting" is only unethical when applied to a substance that is taken by the animal's mouth (sense of taste), but not applied to attract or fool the senses of hearing, smell, touch or vision. How so?
 
For me, you feed livestock. Baiting bears, corn feeders for deer/pigs, food plots, etc.make a wild animal more domesticated. To me, there's a huge difference between finding a natural food source and "sitting" on it, or even hunting animals coming out of the fields, and feeding. In my mind, it crosses into agriculture doing the later. Just my .02


"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"
 
Im not sure that I think salt is any different that a water hole. I don't hunt over it, but I use it on a lot of my cameras and it helps me better understand what animals are in the area. Same idea as sticking it on water.
 
I don't use trail cams and have never put any mineral out for animals. But it doesn't bother me that others do it. I don't think it is unethical at all.
 

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